Just over 140 guests arrived to an evening of light snacks and drinks. Honoured guests included Helen Zille and Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Shuttleworth Foundation, introduced the Foundation and provided a personal insight into the formation of the Foundation. Lynne Matthews (then Director of the Foundation) gave detailed feedback on the projects of the Foundation, where after former State President, Mr. Nelson Mandela addressed the guests via a video speech. A closing talk by Professor Kader Asmal on education in general ended the evening on a high note.

Mr. Nelson Mandela's speech
Mark Shuttleworth's speech
Lynne Matthews? speech

Mr. Nelson Mandela's speech for the launch of the Shuttleworth Foundation (presented via a video recording)

We are a young nation, we face many challenges as we set out to compete in the modern globalised world. We have overcome great political challenges, astounding the world with our innovativeness and our capacity to find solutions for seemingly intractable political problems. A national energy that drove us then was surely not a one-off accident. It came from deep within our accumulated and stirred up national potential.

We have seen much evidence over the last few years of that enery being expressed in other areas of our national life. We have witnessed the genius of our young nation being given free reign. The story of young Mark Shuttleworth is a sterling example in that regard. His spirit of enterprise, hard work, self-reliance and caring for those with whom he worked, inspired all of us. He exemplifies the resolve and the potential of our young nation.

The launch of The Shuttleworth Foundation stands similarly in that spirit. Our young nation cannot start to compete successfully in the modern world, unless we provide to our youth education and training of the highest quality. The resource of our statuary is knowledge. Our young country and our continent will be emancipated to the extent that we move ourselves to the cutting edge frontiers of modern age knowledge. We know that this is possible.
Talks of an African reawakening are predicated on the faith that we can through our own efforts, in partnership with others in the world, educate the people of our country and continent to fully share in the knowledge and treasures of humanity. Nothing of worth comes easily. It always asks for hard work and particularly in our modern world, innovation. This is true particularly in the field of education and training. We suffer a tremendous backlog because of the legacy of our past. The resource constraint that we face materially and in terms of human capacity are equally daunting. We are now again called upon to delve deeply into that national potential.

The vision and mission of the Shuttleworth Foundation testified through the depth of that potential, the spirit of enterprise that caused a young man to reach the top echelons in a highly competitive world industry, is now put to the service of education in our country. I want to congratulate, commend and thank The Shuttleworth Foundation for their decision to embark on this project in this very crucial area.

The future of our nation truly depends upon the success you and those in partnership with you achieve in this field. I wish you well.

Mark Shuttleworth's speech for the launch of the Shuttleworth Foundation

Friends, colleagues, distinguished guests
Thank you for coming to listen us. Thank you for joining us tonight for this celebration. Thank you most especially for the work some of you have already begun with us. I hope you all leave tonight excited at the prospect of future projects that we will undertake together. As you may know the past two years have been quite an adventure for me, and also something of a roller-coaster ride. I went from working quietly in a small farmhouse on this property, to being suddenly in the public eye. Life has changed dramatically. I've been challenged constantly by new and unexpected events. We've had a stock market boom, followed of course by a stock market bust. I've had to learn very quickly to adapt to changing circumstances. I've learned about negotiating with governments here and in America, and I've been drawn into worlds that are completely new to me, like the world of development aid and international task forces on the digital divide. I have loved every minute.

Some of you may wonder what it's like to acquire wealth suddenly, if you had a great business idea or won the lottery or hit the jackpot. In my case I found that I suddenly had many new true friends, most of them from are bank managers. For me many things changed, but fortunately some things also stayed the same.

One of those things that has remained constant for me through all this turbulence has been the desire to share some of this success, some of my tools, and some of our creative energy with other South Africans of all walks of life, so that they too might have the opportunity to unlock their full potential, in whatever form it takes. Tonight, with the formal launch of this Foundation, we start to bring that wish to fruition.

You may also know that I emigrated from South Africa to the UK in February. Of all the unexpected changes I've gone through this past year, that was the most difficult. It has meant canceling most of my plans in South Africa, and having to start again from scratch somewhere else. But it certainly has not in any way changed my commitment to the work of this Foundation, and I will continue to fund it for the foreseeable future.

Over the past year I have derived tremendous joy from the work that has gone into this Foundation. I'm a perfectionist. It has taken many months to craft a vision for the Foundation that would satisfy me. The process has consumed hours of thought. It's been a mix of revision, of frustration, and inspiration. We've had to test and discard many assumptions. Finally with your help I think we have managed to figure out how to position this Foundation to have the most positive possible impact.

Before I tell you in more detail what that vision is, let me thank each and every one of you for your own commitment to education in South Africa. All of you are here tonight because you are in some way working towards the same goal as this team: to deliver on the promise of quality education for every citizen of this country. I have been amazed by the depth and variety of organizations that are working extremely hard in this field. The fact that there are so many other great organizations allows me to take bigger risks and be more focused with our own efforts. It has given us the confidence to focus all of our energy on those areas where we feel we can have the biggest impact and make the biggest contribution with the money we have to spend. We know that we can specialize because we are part of this broader community of education professionals. All of us have limited resources, but our ability to work together means that each of us can achieve more than we could separately.

Let me now describe to you the vision behind this Foundation.
First, we are not about technology in education. Some of you may think of me as a technology guy, but my real passion is innovation, which comes in many forms other than just technology. We are not going to be building schools, with one important exception. We are not going to be wiring classrooms. We are not going to be giving computers to schools. We are not going to be developing computer-based-training content. There are already many organizations doing those important things.

So what are we? Think of us as a combination of a social venture capitalist, a laboratory, a research and development office, an innovation hub, a community forum, and an incubator.

We are bringing the skills of venture capitalism to the non-profit social sector and civil society. We fund risky new ideas to see if they will work in the context of South African education. We look for innovations in training, administration, school management, content production, content distribution, technology, and school governance that can make a difference in schools across the country. We take the risk inherent in new ideas so that other organizations can reap the benefits of that research without risking their capital. In essence, we will fund practical research that teaches us how we can more effectively deliver skills and confidence to millions of learners throughout Africa. We aim to fund these projects in a rigorous and open fashion, so that each project results in a clear and unambiguous assessment of some new approach or idea or technology. In each case we want to be able to find some quantifiable benefit that comes from implementing the idea.

We understand that the government and most funding agencies have their hands full trying to implement existing policy, create infrastructure and build capacity on the ground. There is no money in these organizations for research and development. We seek to look into the future and help pave the way for more effective teaching methods and systems so that the resources of government can be more efficiently targeted in future.
Just as a venture capitalist seeks to find new ideas that will quickly become popular across society, we will seek to fund new ideas that will be easy to deploy throughout the education sector in South Africa. We will consider any idea, even very risky ones. We understand that many of the projects that we fund may fail to produce breakthroughs, but we are in a unique position to take the risks necessary to find the leverage points and critical insights that can make all the difference. I have told the Foundation team that if all their projects are successful then they are not taking big enough risks. In venture capital, one in ten projects is a big success. We need to take the same level of risk to find the big successes.

Of course South Africa is the prime focus of our work, but I believe that much of the developing world and Africa in particular faces similar educational challenges and could benefit from similar research. We are actively partnering with organizations that have a broader understanding of the divide between wealthy and poor nations, and the ways in which innovation can help all developing countries in the field of education. I know from experience that a small team of passionate visionaries based in Cape Town can lead the world in whatever field they choose, so I expect this team not to be shy about their ambition. As a country, we can't remain inward focused; we should always look to the world stage, and expect to take a leading role.

I have asked the Foundation team to take as broad a view of education as possible. I believe that we are all learning, every day, and I have asked the Foundation team to be as open and as creative as possible in selecting their projects. We will apply our skills to all forms of education.

Also, I have asked the Foundation to look at education as a complete system, including the community and environment. They will try to find projects that identify bottlenecks in the system and find solutions to those bottlenecks wherever they may occur. For example, we are looking at the way schools and communities relate to one another, and ways in which the relationship between places of learning and their communities can be strengthened. We are looking at educational content, such as textbooks, workbooks, video content, computer content and other forms of content, and will fund projects to test these different kinds of content to find out which forms work best in different settings. We are looking at the way that schools and other places of learning are organized, administered and managed, and trying to find projects that can demonstrate measurable benefits through better administration and management.

We are not focused on technology - we are focused on innovation. I believe that we will be able to find some very low-tech ideas that make a big difference in real schools here in South Africa. It is very important to me that we focus our attention on projects that can bring benefits to schools that are dependent entirely on limited government budgets. In other words, on each project, we are trying to find ways to use existing budgets more effectively, rather than requiring additional expenditure. We want to find innovations that squeeze more value out of existing budgets, rather than high-tech projects that would take enormous and unrealistic funds to implement. Ultimately, we want to make the whole education system just 1% more efficient, every year. Keeping within existing budgets is an enormous challenge, but one that makes our efforts more valuable and more real.

Tonight is one of many milestones for this Foundation. I have no doubt that we will be seeing many of you on a more regular basis, and working with some of you to achieve our mutual goals. I thank you all for joining us on this special occasion, and for the work that we will do together. Thank you.

And now let me introduce you to Lynne Matthews, an extraordinary woman under who's quiet but determined leadership this Foundation will go from strength to strength. She is a teacher by training, and has worked in civil society and non-profit organizations in the field of education. She has also been responsible for the corporate social investment programs of a number of well-known companies, and I was elated when we managed to convince her to lead the Foundation team. It has been a privilege to get to know her and to work with her laying the groundwork for this first year at the Foundation.

Lynne Matthews? speech for the launch of the Shuttleworth Foundation

Introduction

The Shuttleworth Foundation was established to promote innovation in education. Our implementation of new methods, new programmes and new technologies in education will make a difference in the lives of people in Africa and in the lives of people in the rest of the developing world. We believe in investing in people. We know that it takes a small intervention to unlock the potential in people. The Shuttleworth Foundation has a budget of 30 million Rand for the next three years and is currently involved with three projects.

The Phambili Mathematics and Science Project

Recently, our President, Mr Mbeki and our Minister of education, Professor Asmal, highlighted the need for an intervention in the teaching of maths and science at schools and at tertiary level. After discussions with specialists in the education sector, TSF also recognised this need.

The foundation agreed to sponsor a new methodology of teaching maths and science at schools, through a programme implemented by Effective Teaching, a closed corporation founded by a science teacher. This teacher developed a new method of teaching science that improved the learners' results at his school. The foundation has consented to implement this programme at thirty-three secondary schools and approximately 21 000 learners are currently participating in the programme. The schools are situated in economically disadvantaged urban and rural areas in the Western Cape. As a principle, TSF has insisted that learners make a contribution of R3.50 in order to participate and commit themselves to the programme. This money will be used as an incentive for learners who have performed well.

Effective Teaching has summarised the prescribed maths textbook into one comprehensive workbook for each grade. The workbook also serves as a comprehensive study guide. The educator works with an overhead projector and transparencies that have the same information and follows the same sequence as the learner's workbook. This procedure also applies to the teaching of science. The lessons are therefore pre-prepared, the content is accurate, structured teaching takes place and the lesson is completed in an allotted time. Through this methodology teaching is regularised, the syllabus is completed and there is sufficient time for revision.

A pilot study of this programme at a few schools has shown a positive impact on the examination results. Schools that are under resourced and do not have overhead projectors, are still able to implement this methodology by using flip charts. This indicates that this programme is versatile and can be implemented in schools with the most basic facilities.

A continuous monitoring and evaluation process comprising of visits to participating schools, teacher seminars and regional discussion forums will ensure that the project operates effectively. A field-worker employed by the project co-ordinates these activities.

The Mkhwezo Secondary School

Our former president, Mr Mandela, requested that a school be built in Xhili a small village on top of a little hill in the Transkei.
We visited the site and held discussions with the community and other representatives. Their request was that TSF rebuild the existing primary school, but after consultation with the community, their request for a secondary school to be built on another site was acceeded to. In order to do this, we liaised with the departments concerned to gain their approval. This was an important process. Through discussions, we were able to determine the needs of the community and to share information about TSF's commitment to the project. We encouraged all the role players involved in the building of the school to use local labour so that these skills can be developed in the community.

The school will cater for -+ 700 learners. It will have 15 classrooms a science laboratory, a computer laboratory, a library and an innovative school hall facility. The building will be equipped to accommodate provision for running water and electricity when the province implements it.

This project is scheduled for completion by December 2001. A process is underway to set up meetings with MECS of Education and Finance in the Eastern Cape to discuss operational requirements in terms of staff, furniture and equipment, electricity, water, sanitation etc. We believe that through this process of consultation we can ensure that the school is fully operational by January 2002 and that TSF meets its obligations to Mr Mandela and the people of Xhili, a small village on top of a little hill in the Transkei.

We would like to thank Michael Dall who is the architect responsible for both sets of plans, for facilitating consultation with key role players and for overall management of the building. He is donating his time free of charge and deserves a round of applause.

Schooltool

The Schooltool is our boldest and most ambitious project to date. In discussions with many of you, we learned that the quality of school management and administration is a major factor in determining the quality of education that learners receive. We also realized that very little information flows between schools and education authorities, which makes it difficult to plan and to manage thousands of schools, especially in remote and rural areas. Further research showed that schools in other countries were also experiencing similar problems.

We looked at how technology could simplify and automate school administration and realized that there were many different commercial software packages to do this job, but that these were expensive and that there were no standards for the flow of information between these packages.
So we started to ask questions: what if there was a networked school administration software package that could be designed to work in many countries and under many different conditions? What if that software was given to the world free of charge under an open-source license, so that anybody could modify it and add functionality to it? What if that software was designed to work with the Internet to allow schools and authorities and teachers to share information?
Mark conceived the Schooltool as an attempt to harness the Internet and new technology to address the needs of educators and administrators across the globe. This is a very ambitious goal, but I have come to expect very ambitious challenges from Mark!

We have invested the necessary funds to create a working system, which can form the basis of an open source community of programmers who use the system and continually improve it. We are designing the system so that it can be used by schools without any computers, as well as by wealthy schools with extensive computing facilities. We are designing it so that it can work in many different countries, in different languages, with different rules and regulations.
We think that it is possible to create a global standard, not imposed from above but as a grassroots movement among schools in many countries with a common goal.

We hope that the Schooltool will take schools into a new era of management efficiency and communication, and help them to make better use of their resources. The business sector is constantly developing ways of communicating faster, better and smarter. This has brought great benefits to business. This same pace of innovation has not yet happened in education, and we hope that the Schooltool will lead the way.

One day, a district administrator will know exactly which schools in her area need urgent attention before it is too late for those learners. A provincial planner will be able to tell exactly how many pupils have enrolled at different schools within days of the start of the school year. Parents will know how their child is performing at school, and what their rate of attendance in class is. We hope that this will streamline the entire education system, ensuring that timetables, books, exams, teachers and pupils are all in the right place at the right time. We hope that this will empower schools as well as provincial and national authorities. Again, this is a very ambitious project, and one that we may need your help with. We are sailing into uncharted waters, but we think we have a good visionary at the helm of the boat!
TSF will continue to consult extensively with many role players in the education sector to share ideas, discuss methods and to determine key management areas.

The Way Forward

The Shuttleworth Foundation believes in partnerships and consultation and would value your opinions, suggestions and comments. We would like to:
? Arrange forums with teachers, principals, EMDC directors, MEC's and all other role players in education to test our ideas and get feedback and contributions so that together we can develop software applicable for management and administration of schools.
? Arrange forums for maths and science role players in a non-threatening, non-competitive and non-commercial environment so that together we can share methods of teaching science and maths successfully.
? Arrange seminars on the open source philosophy